One Song - Fugees' "Ready or Not" w/ Wyclef Jean

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

What song connects 1960s soul, Irish new age, and ’90s hip-hop? Diallo Riddle and LUXXURY go deep on Fugees’ classic “Ready or Not” with special guest Wyclef Jean. Together, they deconstruct the track’s haunting beat, uncover its surprisingly sourced bassline, and unpack the layered samples and interpolations that helped turn the song into a defining moment in hip-hop history. Songs Discussed: “Ready Or Not” - Fugees “Maria Maria” - Santana feat. The Product G&B “No, No, No Part 2” - Destiny’s Child feat. Wyclef Jean “Hips Don’t Lie” - Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean “What Would You Do?” - City High “Fu-Gee-La” - Fugees “Shook Ones, Pt. II” - Mobb Deep “Temperature’s Rising” - Mobb Deep feat. Crystal Johnson “Vocab (Refugees Hip Hop Remix)” - Fugees “Orinoco Flow” - Enya “Boadicea” - Enya “Ready or Not Here I come (Can’t Hide from Love)” - The Delfonics “If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)” - Nas feat. Lauryn Hill “If I Ruled The World” - Kurtis Blow “Ninety Nine (Flash the Message)” - John Forté “99 Red Balloons” - NENA “Anything Can Happen” - Wyclef Jean “Bubblegoose” - Wyclef Jean “Gone Till November” - Wyclef Jean “Dance Like This” - Wyclef Jean feat. Claudette Ortiz “Amores Como el Nuestro” - Jerry Rivera One Song Spotify Playlist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ready or not, here I come, you can't hide. Gonna find you and take it slowly. The first thing she starts to sing is ready or not. There was no like, I'm going to sing two or three, and I was just like, yo, this is hard. It's a luxury today. We're talking about a song that really challenged not only what hip hop could sound like,

but what success could look like. That's right, Diallo, with its earl. Eerie, minimalist textures, and abstract yet socially minded lyrics. The song is a fan favorite on one of the best-selling records of all time. That's right. And to help us deconstruct this classic, we're joined by one of the architects behind the sound and the vision. We're talking one song, and that song is Ready or Not by The Fugees. Ready or Not, here I come.

You can't hide. I'm going to find you. I'm actor-writer. and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist Luxury, aka the guy who whispers, Interpolition. And this is one song.

The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres, and tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before, and you can watch one song on YouTube. While you're there, please like and subscribe. Our guest today is one of the creative visionaries behind the Fugees. And beyond the Fugees, our guest has built a prolific, and dare I say, I say unparalleled career as a solo artist and songwriter and producer to artists as diverse as Santana.

Destiny's Trial. Shakira. One of my personal favorites, City Hot. Please give it up for Grammy award-winning artist, producer, composer, and icon. Why Clef John? Thank you so much for coming to our show. What up, my brothers. We got a lot to talk about.

We saw your show last night at Bluno. It was insane. It was amazing. Yo, but what's crazy? You ain't see me looking at you? I kind of did, but I was hoping. I thought I was going to be a narcissist. You don't know.

I was like, yo, these dudes are either two DJs from like Europe somewhere. Can we stand out in the crowd? I said one probably from Sweden. I said. Which one is that? And the other one from Lagos. Oh, man. You're from Lagos.

You're from Seattle. Oh, man. That makes sense. I was hoping in Atlanta, but okay. That's fine. There's so much energy and, like, the build from beginning to end. You had us, like, enthralled the whole time. And then you had everyone in the audience jumping around and dancing at the Barry.

Yeah, yeah. It's a carnival. It's straight out carnival, you know? No, definitely. I don't think the blue-knit of Los Angeles is going to be the same. I don't think they're used to it. It can't be the same, baby. It can be the same.

You know, like, for me, just I used to. I was happy my high school teacher was there. He was like, whiplash. He was like, let me... Yeah, you mentioned that. He was on high. He was like, yeah, yeah. Even like yesterday, like he gave me a flashback yesterday.

He almost scared me again. Like, you know, he scared me when I was 14, but that flashback, he was like, I told them, you must fart in unison and you almost all smell this thing. I was like, huh? It's like, yeah, quite the story. I was like, thank you, sir. I mean, he would have been tall then. He was a very tall man.

He was definitely tall. But, you know, it was just like I was born in Haiti. And then we moved to Brooklyn. New York City. We lived in Marlboro Projects. And after that, my cousin got killed. You know, it was just crazy. And we moved to Jersey.

Right. And then in Jersey, I would say, like, Newark. Between Newark and East Orange, that helped, like, shaped a lot. You know, a lot of people, I don't know, like, Frank Sinatra, like, cooling the gang. Yeah. And I think, like, one of the early recipes that we had that nobody, known in the gate, the Fugees was originally signed the Cool In The Gang.

Right, your first record you did with the producer, right? And then Khalis Bayan, who a crazy composer, he the one who did Jungle, Boogie, all of that. So he literally took me under his wings. That was Blunted on reality? Blunted on reality, yeah. So today we're talking about Ready or Not from the score. And I want to zoom out for a second because this album came out in 96,

and I felt like y'all were moving differently. y'all were bringing in singing, live instrumentation, global samples. You were also just like, y'all felt like some true hip-hop heads from New Jersey in some ways. You know what I'm saying? Like before that was, like understood what that was. Creatively, 1996 Me was grouping you guys with the roots and outcasts and souls of mischief. And I was thinking about this. None of these groups were from New York, but they all had sort of that East Coast influence, you know?

And so when you were making this. music, were you consciously thinking about pushing boundaries, or were you just instinctually making the music that you wanted to hear? I mean, so we, I was, like, influenced, too, by, like, hieroglyphics. Yeah. You feel what I'm saying? Like, Dale. Casual. Casual. So, like, it was a lot of that going on. And I would say, like, just underground. So the sonics of the underground, whether if it was east or west, there was a consistency to that vibe. You know what I'm saying? So you're not thinking about it. You're just doing it.

You know what I'm saying? So for me, I was like just a young composer coming from the church. And my early just fell in love with sonics. I'm sorry, what church is that? So I'm from like the church

of the Nazarene. It's a straight up gospel, Caribbean church, you know, every Sunday worship, you know, be careful. Like, you know, you start talking in tongues, you know what I mean? Like that kind of energy.

They're straight up like that Pentecostal energy where the church is like created for like 70 people, but there's 300 people in there and that energy is going. So sort of like coming from that energy and directing choirs and all of that, I fell in love with producing hip hop. But one of my greatest inspiration is Salam Remy. Salam Remy. That's like one of the original oracles. So Fugulah was the first song that you worked on that ended up on the score. It was also the debut single off the album. I remember this song like it was yesterday.

Let's listen to a little bit of Fujila. I still remember hearing this on Emerson College Radio and being like, I got to get this. And I had just bought my Gemini Scratchmaster, which was the first DJ mixer I ever owned. I bought it used. It was already beat up. But I took my little bit of money that I had in college, and I went down to, it was either Roxbury or Dorchester.

bought the 12-inch, you know, I had a little leftover. Might have bought Shook Ones by Shook-Wood's Part 2. And Simperts is Rising by Mobb, and I bought Resurrection by Kamp. Because I wanted that 12-inch. It had the extra P remix, which I still think is one of the most beautiful, Shadow Large Professor, one of the most beautiful remixes of all time. That song is, that Fuji Lass still just, it still grabs you. And that's a Salam Remy beat, right?

Yeah, so Salam, like we like, brother. you know what I mean? And like coming up, it's like, I would just say like, our relationship was probably be like similar to like Quincy and Ray Charles. It's just two different composers coming up and sharing ideas. And Salam did that beat. Originally, that beat was for Fat Joe. Yeah.

And he passed on it? I'm going to let Joe say that part. Joe probably going to say, we stole his beat. Okay. What did you, why did you know you needed that beat? Like, what about it? Appeal to you. Well, the thing is,

When we heard that beat, the beat just sounded like, you know, because we called ourselves like the refugees, right? And there was an energy of that beat where the beat was so, one of the things about the Fuji is because we were so musical at the time. And we showed up and it was like, oh, so more band-oriented from the gate, more so than sample-orientated. So the label was like literally, you know, y'all got to find a producer that's very connected to the streets. And I remember Salam one of the things he told me, he's like, man, he's like, man, you're too much of a nerd.

Like, we got to like, we got like, you're a nerd from the projects. We got to knucklehead this up for a minute. And when I heard that beat, I was like, this is perfect. I could talk some knucklehead shit on this beat, you know what I'm saying to you. Right. Meaning it was like less esoteric and like it was more of a straight street beat? Yeah, and then the Fugis is like early Lakers. You know what I'm saying to you?

It's like it's just the best players, right? So it's like you have like magic and Kareem. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I mean? Like Lauren's straight up magic. I'm straight up Kareem. And she looked at it. Prize is AC Green.

Okay. More than worthy, right? And like don't sleep. Like something's going to happen. Because prize will say one thing, one bar and that bar becomes my thought shifts. energy or whatever. So the minute I heard it, man, it automatically called to me

like, we used to be number 10 now we permanent, because we was like, if we're going to settle the score, we got to let them know, you know what I mean? And then you have a course Miss Hill was just amazing with her. We was talking about albums earlier. Just the

architect of soul music. Like she taught me about soul music. Like I would teach her about compa and stuff comes from the islands. So we always talked about like that mix, you know what I'm saying?

That's sort of like what made the vibe kind of... You sort of... It's part of what you're referring to her literal like knowledge of like 70s funk record, like soul record collection or was there something else? Her records collection or movie collection. She's the first...

There's a movie called Black Orpheus. Love Black Orpheus. Like she put me up on that. So yeah, so you got to think so Super early, you know what I mean? And then there's a band out of Haiti called Tabu Combo. You know, now if you look at it,

Kompah is a genre now. It's out of Haiti. It's a genre. But back then it was in a genre. Like, as far as like, when you look at it, you know, it wasn't like Grammys. Like, think about now what the nominees are. Now you could go on any streaming service

and type Kompah and the actual genre pose up. So can you imagine like 30 years ago we just going through all of these genres, that are not popular yet. Yeah. When you talk about you were more of a band, I'm curious what you mean by that

because obviously, for those who don't know, you're a multi-talent, multi-instrumentalist. We saw you last night performing, you were doing the Jimmy Hendrix guitar behind your neck

and with your teeth. You got a 12-member, you got a 12-piece band on stage. Are your teeth okay? You were playing a lot of your teeth were okay. Uh-huh. How did it look.

They looks good. You recovered nicely. After all the bleeding, in my guns. I was like, I hope it's okay. So when you say the Fugis were a band, or you had that approach at least. No, of course, yeah, definitely like the Beatles or like the wall, like Pink Floyd.

Like, that's how we write. You know what I'm saying? You mean the instrumental side? The instrumental side or both? The group side, the idea of like how we set up the shows, right? Because at the time, it was like literally, like you were saying, so it was like, the Fugees and the roots were like literally

like the band. But at a very young age, to decide like, no, man, we're going to be a band. Like, because it was very important to set that precedent from the gate. You mean, you didn't want to show up live with just three MCs and a DJ and a turntable? Was that sort of what you're talking about? Well, the thing is, I felt like why just do that? Why just do that?

Yeah. Because when we look at it, there were people doing that already. But the records, the vinyl was like, it was like Earth went and Fire. It was like, you know, cool in the gang, you know, stylistics, you know what I mean? and when we looked, it was just bands. You know what I'm saying? So we was like, oh, we still go ahead, the DJ, the foundation, but then we was like,

but we straight up going to bring the art of it, the bass, you know, the music and all that. My cousin Jerry went on production, also on bass, amazing. I went back and I listened to a lot of the classic hip-hop albums of the 1990s. You know, I was listening to the opening of Ready to Die by notorious B.I.G, the chronic. And, of course, I was listening to the score,

and I was sort of struck by how cinematic the classic albums of the 90s, especially in hip hop, felt. And my theory is that we didn't have social media. We didn't have a lot of access to movie cameras unless you were John Sincleton or Alan Hughes. But y'all would make us movies on these albums. Like they felt bigger than just a collection of songs. They felt like a movie. Did you all feel that in crafting an album like The Score? Well, I think, like, to us, like, when we look back at it, it's no different than what Gershwin did, you know, Quincy Jones, right?

And I think that that's the word. Like, I think hip hoppers would get underestimated as far as, like, they wasn't looking at us like composers. Like, it's like, whatever's going to say rap is crap. Yeah, so then, you know, you got bought. But now you can rate us with all of them from these intros that you're talking about. And it was sort of like, as a composer in my head, if some kid is in Sudan somewhere and gets a hold of this cassette tape, right? Ain't no television. Ain't no, right?

And we're talking about 30 years ago, right? And I'm just saying. So then what I got to do is have him feel this visual audio thing. And I think in that connection, I think we connected like that, the chronic and, you know, a lot of different albums. remember because back then, right, hip hop records, like the intro was a very big thing. It's like the start of a film, right? Yes. And that to me was audio visual.

It was a very important part of it. A couple of things real quick. Vocab remix. Napi Heads remit. These were remixes that brought in that live instrumentation that somebody who's listening to it. Like, I can immediately tell, that's a real guitar on that track, which was not always the case. First acoustic, first acoustic hip-hop song ever. Yeah.

History is vocab. Vocab remix is so dope. I'm gonna play a little second for the room. There's a little bit of vocab remix. Yeah, this one is me and Jerry Wonder. Straight up Y-Clapped guitar. Yeah, this straight up Y-Clef Jerry W. Woo!

Still hits. Oh yeah. And I remember seeing the video on Rap City back in the day and just being like, yo, this group is different. Yeah, you saw Jerry with the one-finger bass going to bomb. Absolutely. That's from the old fat Albert. Fat Albert.

Yeah. Remember, that's the one. Oh my gosh. Yes, you're right. Yeah, we used to watch a lot of cartoons, though. Got to watch the cartoons. So there's another collaborator on the score that we want to take a moment to mention Mr. John Forte.

He passed away recently. I can't imagine how that feels, but I would ask, what would you like our listeners and the people to know about John and his contributions to the score? Well, I think, like John in general, his contribution to the world. world. You know what I mean? I think the best way like people be like, yo, explain

the score and I say like think of it like stacks. You know what I'm saying? Like the best musicians out of stacks, the label. And then think of just the Motown, like the band that actually was playing. So yeah, the Funk Brothers. So I think like that was us. Like we was like the Funk brothers. You know what I'm saying? You had like

Miss Hill who had a certain level of grooves you know and she was boom boom. Then you had, then Forte was her friend. She bought her in Forte. And then Forte sonically She brought in Forte. Yeah, that was Lawrence friend.

So she bought in Forte. Then I got cool with Forte. And me and Jerry, we're first cousins. And, you know, so we've been literally playing together since we've been like kids, kids. You're talking about Jerry Wonder.

Jerry Wonder. So you can imagine that combination. So what happens is I would say, and I had said that, I would say the score would not have sounded the way it sounded without Forte's contribution. I think what Forte bought, he bought a sonic lens that didn't exist. Because when we was talking early and we was talking about like so's a mischief, remember?

And I was saying, so the best way I could say, like, Forte was our Q-Tip. Right. That's the best way I could explain it. Okay. Like Forte, this Q-Tip is amazing. And he has a hip-hop science, a lo-fi science. You know, he's one of the greatest producers. Which I don't think we knew in them.

I didn't know as a casual hip-hop head. Yeah. I was a head. But I didn't realize in the 90s, I assumed Alishahi Muhammad was doing all the producing. You come to find out years later that, like, a lot of that stuff was just in Q-tips head. Yeah, it was in his head.

And what I mean by that, you know, and I learned that from, like, Michael Jackson, because he always was like, the orchestra lives in your head first, right? And think about it. So today with AI and different technologies, you could just have an idea in your head now, right? And then you could spit it out like that.

And then I would say that that's one of the things of Forte. I literally, you saw how you were saying the Q-Tip thing. So I think because the group was so big, I think the Forte part was just missed. You know what I'm saying? So it's important that within the course of legacy, we explain how amazing Forte was. Man, when I tell you Forte for the world, though, dude, when Forte went to prison. Yeah. Like, I have people that's in my band.

like one of my sound dudes, he was writing letters to Forte in prison. Forte literally reformed the area where he was at. Learn how to play guitar, started giving music lessons, you know, tech lessons, all kind of stuff. And then get a pardon from George Bush and then comes out of prison and reforms himself with a whole new form of music, you know, a whole new energy. And so that's what I tell you. So this is like reformed for the world.

So I think like when people get into the John Forte documentary, you know, in his life, you know, they always call Forte the fourth Fuji. And I stand by that. He's definitely the fourth Fuji. Yeah, we love that. We love that. And much love and condolences to his wife and family. Definitely. And I'm just glad like, because when we did the Fuji reunion, we got to do the tour and board everybody out.

Yeah. So just that boy, man, his smile on this. We bought Forte. We bought the outs. So it was great to see him. He was like with my daughter and all of the kids. Like that even touched him when they heard like, you know what I'm saying? Like John Forte Pat.

And all of them were like 21, 22. So the coolest thing for them was smoking weed with John Forte. Like it was like, yo. That's beautiful. All right. We're going to take a quick break. But when we get back, we're going to hear the song Ready or Not Like we've never heard it before as we listen along with the man who helped create and craft it, the one and only, Why Claifjean, when we get back.

All right, welcome back to One Song. Here we are with the incredible Why Clave-Jean, and he's going to help us break down ready or not. Luxury, my man, shall we start with the drum? We're just going to listen to the beat, and then I got so many questions. So we're going to get nerdy. We're going to nerd out. Okay. So now, I know you're getting into the beat.

Yeah. But as you get into the beat, I just want you to watch my hand, draw. Yeah? Right. So I'm in the cafeteria. This is important. Okay. Right, just the cafeteria. Okay. Right hand is high hat. Left hand is kick.

So listen to the drums, but watch the hands on the table of Wycliffe and all. Like anytime. On commence. Is that school kid lunch table beat making? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah, big, talk about. Man a block, way the rock and a... Straight up cafeteria beat.

Yeah. So in my brain, Right. I did this beat on an MPC 60. Okay. Right. Exactly what you just seen. You know what I mean? Very cafeteria.

One, two, three, four. Because it got to be simple because the punch lines, right? Because it's going to be all about these punch lines. So go on with this story, but I have two questions. Yeah, go ahead. I have nerdy questions. Go ahead. I'm ready.

Nerd question number one. You mentioned the Lin 9,000. Yes, we could go back to that. What is the sound source of your kick snare and hat? And is it a Linddrum snare pitched up? And if not, what can you reveal about the source? Well, the source, my whole source are two things. Okay.

Lin 9,000, that was one of my original source. And my other source was a VFX keyboard. Okay. Right. It had beats in it. It had got beats. It had high hats. It had everything.

So that was my plugin. Okay. Like, meaning like this little piece of hardware of this VFX was my plugin. So you recorded from those sources into the MPC one set per pad. Yeah, the Linn, 9,000, at one time, that was my computer. Okay. Because it's just the easiest sequencer. For programming.

Yeah, for programming. It's like logic right now. You know what I'm saying to you. So in saying that, and then I started programming on the MP. And then I started, of course, you know, the samples are very short. Like you could pull in because you, I'm from the floppy disk, from the small floppy disk. Because, you know, you only have a few seconds or whatever. Right.

So one of the things that I like to do, the tape machine that we had was a four, five, six, Ampex reel. And what I found to be amazing sometimes was to take like the kick source, throw it to tape. Okay. Sample it back. From the tape. From the tape. Because the tape gets it sort of saturated sounds. Well, it's the same.

It's the same wave, like different ways, moving a wave around and just trying to get it to patch it differently. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's one of the things, y'all. We're going to just talk about the snare. Like, I'm just, that's the deep rabbit hole of this moment. Is the snare, potentially, if you remember it? Without it been the snare from the Lynn that you then threw pitched up? No, that's just, that's the snare that I sampled.

Okay. From a record, I cut it straight from a, and I wanted the snare to feel like a live snare. I needed it to cap back. So it's from, remember back in the days, there was so much breakbeat records, you know what I'm saying? So I was just going through records. Like breakbeatlew or something, ultimate beats and breaks,

just to get down. Like you're looking for the part of the record that just snap, you know what I mean? And then I wanted something that I needed it. And then also to you guys, your drummers, right? So I needed something that felt like hip hop, like low fire times, but then I needed it to snap like a live snare. If you notice, though, the snare has a rim shot with it. Oh, is it layered with a rim shot?

Of course. Now, if you listen to it again, you're going, hey, like, the snare got a rim shot. Like, meaning like it layers like that. Like you can cap, get it. But that was in the sample or you layer it? Ket it. Okay. I lay that. Yeah, I lay that.

A lot of the cheat codes for me with the drums that I used was R8, the R8. What's the R8? It's a drum machine. Oh, I don't know that one. Is it a Roland? Yeah, it's a Rol. Okay. Yeah.

So, oh, you don't know that one? I don't know the R8. All right, check it out. I'll check it out. Well, there'll be sounds in there, then I'll be like, oh, that's a Fuji saying. But it was like a lot of that in the church we used to use for like electric sounds. Okay. And then so a lot of that fusion again, right?

Because when you're trying to build the sound, you're trying to take three and four sounds and compile it into like one wave. Make something to do. Right, right. Oh, man, thank you for that nerd out. Here's part two of the nerd question. You just played the beat,

you just played the lunch table beat, right, with kick and snare. So here's my question. When I tried to recreate it, and I'm going to do a very poor job with you, the creator sitting next to me. But tell me... Sound like you were genius already.

No, no, no, no, no. The genius is right there. I was challenged to get the kick, snare, and hi-hat same time. That would be like, it's a little messy. Yeah. Were you doing that? Or did you put a high hat on a loop like this and go?

So now watch this. So again, with my hands. So with my hands, if we're in an MP, we got, right? Okay, you are doing high hat. Now watch this, yeah. So when I would demo it, because there's a drummer, Like once my patches out, I always like naturally like just, right? Because I'm feeling it out with my hands.

What you're doing for our listeners, with your left hand, you're doing kick and snare. And your right hands do the high hand, right? All the right time. So I do that on the MP. When it's time to record. You get more precision. I get more precision. Yeah, of course, of course, right?

Because I want to separate the tracks. You know what I'm saying to you? But for the bop and the vibe, you know, I do all. It's like you're demoing the energy. that you want to feel. And you're also acting as the drummer. So you're the musician playing the beat. Yeah, also too. And then the MPC had a certain swing to it. Like the way like the kids use fruity the loop. So the MP and the SP just had its own swing to it. Yeah. So it was like at times it's dope. Like when you feel it. A little bit not strictly straight. No. Just like it's sort

like reminded me of how Barb Marley's bass player would play. Ashton. Where it's like just like one millisecond behind the groove and then, you know what I'm saying? That's family man. We love family. Yeah, and it sits like, you know what I mean? Yeah, that energy. That was so fun. Thank you.

What a life moment that was to nerd out on the other day. You rocked it. You rocked it. I seen him, man. That was good, man. All right. Well, I mean, let's talk about this sample. How did you come across this song by Inya Budica? So the, I say, now that I awake, sleepwalkers awake, those who can relate.

That's a movie, sleepwalker. You ever seen it? No, but I know the story. story. You were sleeping and you woke up, right? Yeah, so I was watching sleepwalk up. Just to say, like, so watching that sample, like, so you wake up

and automatically, I was like, yo, I got to cut that, right? So keep in mind, right? So back then it was like VCR, as you feel what I'm saying to you? So you're going to cut that VCR sound back to the tape. And that's sort of like, so that humming, I lived with it a little bit, just

and then I was like, okay, I got to hit the record still. And then when I hit the record store, I was like, okay, this is Enya. And then I was like, yo, who's Enya? How did you figure out that what you heard was Enya? That what you had in your head. When you got to the record store, how did you know it to ask pre-Shazam? Because I know that whole cello. I know all of that.

And then I knew about like Gagorian chant. Okay. And so I was a very like advanced when it comes to like, you know, sonic. So Enia had that distinctive at the time, right? She's the only one who figured out how to lay. these vocals in a Gagorean chant way, and it was just insane. So that sort of like was the start of how this thing came to beat. And that was the start.

So you mentioned that you taped the song off VCR. When you get to the record store, let's just follow this thread. Yeah. You get to the record, you buy the record. Is it vinyl? Is it CD at this time? No, everything is vinyl. It's vinyl.

Yeah, yeah. Everything is vinyl. So you bought her first record, her self-titled record. I got Inya's record, you know what I'm saying? But I also sampled it from the VCR. That's what I was going to ask. Yeah, yeah. Because there's something about the sample in the mix that is not, it's very low-fi.

It's warped. It's warped. And it kind of warbles from speaker to speaker. It warped, warped. It came from a S-900, which means once I warped it, put it on the S-9-100 and I put the little filter on it. That's why it sound like that. It sounds amazing.

It doesn't sound like the record. You added effects in a way almost accidentally, because you're pulling it from the VCR with its low-fi resolution. Straight-out low-fi resolution. Yeah. That is so good. I did a lot of that. Like, I love that kind of stuff.

I was trying to figure out, like, how you treated the sample. Like, did you add some, like, EQ cuts, distortion? No, the trick was the Akai S-900. Yeah. It was probably, was that, like, 12-bit or even 8-bit, maybe? I don't even know. It's low-fi, though. It was low-fi, you know, and then there's a filter on that S-9-100 that you just go.

You can drop it right there. And I just used to love to do that to samples. Yeah. It gives it more vibiness. Yeah, it gives it a darkness to it. Which is similar because it harkens to our episode about Wu-Tang. Because Riz is doing a kind of similar thing with consciously, first of all, taking his VCR, right, and getting some of that, of those samples. 100% like VCR's old cassette tapes.

You know, a lot of it, a lot of it, when you sampled it directly from the VCR, right, it's a natural filter. It comes with a natural, messed up, dirty sound already. That's a plug-in within itself. And that's a plus because you want it to sound different. That was the sound of the underground. back then. Yeah, yeah. A bit of grime.

Grime, that's right. Yeah, that's how it started. Let's listen to what the original sounds like, and then let's talk about how you transformed it. And again, we'll do my best to sort of show it, recreate it, and you'll correct, well, you'll correct the record as it happens. So there can be absolute accuracy.

The original version was a little faster, around 99-100 BPM. Here it is. And that's it, just that, it's a four-bar loop, basically. It's pitched down, two half steps or a whole step. So it sounds like this, which just a whole step down is already like darker sounding. And it's a little slower, about 10 BPM-ish slower. And that's our loop.

And by the way, now that we've heard the beat and the Enya sample, it's off to the vocals from here. That's the entirety of the track. Yeah, that's the entirety. I did the beat in like 15 minutes, like too easy. Was there just was there a bass? One question I had was, did you overlay like two bass notes like every four bars? Yeah, two bass notes. Oh, that's it.

Yeah. Oh, there was. Very simple. So simple. Yeah, so simple. I call it like the three, the three Sonics theory, right? And I think we still live by that. What's that?

The three Sonics theory as a music theorist, right? I think that the human ear automatically plays within a stereo precision. Right? I think your nose ankles the middle. Right. And I think your right ear and your left ear, right, two different, you know, even though it's all coming like this, three Sonics automatically drives it home. Like you don't need much. When you're seeing like the street bands or you look at the Jimmy Hendricks band, it's no more than three people.

Yeah. So sometimes like less is better. So like we're in an area right now where Sonic. where less is better. These beats that you're loving are really three sonic beats. These 808s that are layered over and over, it's still the same 808.

The drum that you hear is still a stereo bus. And then the vocal now, even with the auto tune, it plays part of like what you call a horn, a vocal horn. So for me, the best records always start with like the three sonic stereo for me.

That's amazing. I love that theory. Yeah. It always starts. And I think it's just band-oriented. So when me and Jerry are playing, it's like Sly and Robbie. One on the drum, the other on the bass. You know what I'm saying? And my man, Joe gets on the guitar.

If he gets off the guitar, he gets on the keyboard. And it's still like, it's inviting. It's the three Sonics theory to me is the invitation to, like, the ear. You know what I'm saying? You know how they say, like, less is better. Yeah. Yeah. So threes show up a lot in your-

How many mics do you rip on the deli? Three Sonic theory. Oh, wait, what? Three Sonic theory. How many mics do you? Mini money, mini, mini. They don't on and up. That's it.

Wow. I think you're giving the keys to the kingdom. Yeah. Well, I think like a lot of the producers that are doing now, a lot of the plug-ins that we're seeing, like at the end of the day, I can have a kick and I can make it sound 30 million different ways. But the genesis of it is still one.

Let me just quickly, because we mentioned it, and I want to play it for you. So here is that bass that you referred to. It's just these two knocks, and then I'll give you the context, because it's, I didn't notice it until I was really digging deep into it. But here's that, here's the baseline. Like, that's pretty much it. And I could tell you what that is. Yeah, what is that? I wish someone can guess it.

Play it again. Listen, what is that, people? You could you guess it? I can tell you. Is it a sample or is it from a synth? It's a sign weave. It's a sineway? Oh, yes, I hear that now.

Okay, play it again. Because it almost doesn't have pitch. It borders on not having pitch. There you go. Yeah. It's the kunk theory. What's the kunk there? I love all these theories.

Teach us. Remember the kunk? The dude that was playing the kunk on the show. Oh, the guy playing the show. I like the kunk. That theory, it lives in between. By gosh. Like the note lives, it's like the Thelonious Munchshed that lives in between.

That's just the sign wave. That is so cool, man. Let me give you the context. That's a straight-up sine wave. Anybody that want this sign wave right now. If you have on a Kai S900, pull it up right now, keep it at 440 standard and pitch that shit down. And it's going to sound just like that. Literally the fundamentals of sound are sign waves.

And this is like it's so fundamental that it hasn't even formed a pitch yet. Half of the score is all sound waves. Really? That's super cool, man. You heard it here first. What a nerd out. I'm having the time of my life over here. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm about it for real, man. This is, that is very hard to hear in the mix, but just for context, it's happening. I'll point it out as it happens.

Here's the final track. I want to play with Pelicans from here to Baghdad. Gun blast. Think fast. I think I'm hit. My girl pitch my hips to see if I still exist. That's it. And you only have that like every few bars. Yeah.

That's so cool. Right. And then, right? And then the theory of this sine wave, so we pitching it down. So that means it's living within a low frequency. Right? So we're in the club. right? Because now when the shit gets in the club,

when people want the bottom, you know what I'm saying? So how do you sneak the bottom? And I felt like a lot of the 808s were being stretched. You know what I'm saying? It was like, hmm, you know, and I was like, yo, this feels so beautiful. How can we get something to sit right under the kick? And it's just a punch because it's very short sounds. Straight punch. And in that moment it, boom. Straight punch.

And then it goes away and you miss it. You want it to come back. Yeah, right. That's so cool. What a cool detail. that we have revealed on one song, one song exclusive with White Lejean. Awesome, man. Thank you. Well, one last part of the sample, which is just to separate the two

and to really call attention to what's happening in here. Because what's interesting when you think about it is that, you know, in two ways of speaking that will get to Enya and her compatriots in Ireland there are participants on this song. They are part of the Fugis insofar as their recorded parts. are in the sample, right? So let's give it a little bit of shine to Enya for a moment.

100%. Shout out to Enya. Shout out to Enya, who, you know you have a great story that we want to hear in a moment. First of all, just for those who don't know, by the way, she's one of the biggest selling recording artists alive today, a new age superstar with 80 million records sold worldwide. But she's an Irish woman born Enya Patricia Brennan in Guidoor County, Donegal, Ireland. her whole family is musicians.

She was very briefly in the family band, which is Klanad, a band people have heard of. I didn't realize until I was researching that she had briefly been in that band. And she left with her manager's Nikki and Roma Ryan, who I imagine are names that are familiar to anyone who's looked at the credits. Who are these other people in the credits of this Fuji's song? It's Enya and her manager and her manager's wife, who's the lyricist. Now, why is that interesting and important when we get to? to the splits later because Enya's not singing any lyrics. She's literally humming. Let's listen to that.

Here is just the isolated vocal. That's about 10 hums. And in spite of the absence of lyrics, the third member of the Enya crew who is paid out from this song. And I'm looking forward to talking to you about that whole situation, was the lyricist and there are no lyrics. So that's an interesting little fun fact. Think about, meanwhile, on the music side of it, we're hearing literally, well, it's five chords, but they're not really chords. Let's listen and we'll talk about it. So that's... I didn't realize that had that little bounce to it. It has a little bounce to it. With a different beat, this could be really goofy. Right? It could be a goofy beat. You're literally hearing just the four chords are implied simply by

the notes. Those are five individual notes. I'll play it for you. She bought a Juno 106, turned it on, went to patch three. Literally, it's a preset. And I'm going to play her original version, so it's pitched up by two half steps. So that's five notes. There's no chords at all, no intervals. It's very simple and streamlined and haunting.

And of course, it has that very underwater feeling, which when I saw the video, it feels so perfect for what the sounds are. So the song, again, with the pronunciation, could be boadicea, but apparently the original Celts would have had it as Budica because the song was recorded for a BBC documentary about the Celts, about the history of Celts.

So baked into the sound and the title itself, which means victorious woman, and it's about the character Bodhika was the queen of an ancient British tribe who led a failed uprising against the conquering Roman Empire in 60 AD. So this is like the Joan of Arc of the Celts. So there's this fighting woman story

buried in the sample, and then it finds its way into your song. And that energy and that history makes so much sense. It's like this incredible confluence of sound and history and meaning. Yeah. I think the thing is like when people hear hip-hop, they just take the word as in people who rap and they're going to tell street stories. I want to explain that hip-hop is the culture.

And inside of the culture, if Bach was born in a culture, Bach would be hip hop. So there, as a, you know, my name is John White Cliff. I'm named after the historian from England. I have an English name. And I'm a, you know, my dad was a theologian. So I don't just listen to things. I hear things in a different form.

So think about John White Clef, he reformed the church. And so the idea with what we was trying to do is like, yo, we're going to like reform where we come from. We're going to have you have a different sense of thinking of what you think we're supposed to be, right? Because you're like, okay, we're from the projects, you know, and this is what we're supposed to talk about. And then we're like, no, you know, actually, no, we're actually reading the Lutheran doctrines. And you're like, nah, what is that? Martin Luther, no, I'm like, this is what inspired the Lutheran church.

So in saying that, I was inspired and moved by what Inya was doing because it's sort of like, it just, it just, I felt like it called me like some church shit. You know what I'm saying? It was like, it felt like amazing grace, but just in a different form. Right. And I was like, yo, and not even knowing all the stories, right? You know what I'm saying? You felt the stories. It was there.

I felt the story. Because that's the power of music is that you don't need this explanation. to feel what's really happening. Now on the nerd shit. Yeah, that's right. Now we're talking about it. You said Juno. Juno 106 was like one of the first Juno's.

Yeah, the third one. Yeah. And then so all of the Junos have this sound on it. Right? They have the boom, boom, boom. So as like, yeah, exactly. So like as a crazy like scent head also, you know what I'm saying? I was like drawn by that corky like, I was like,

yo, how the hell this freaking like Juno sound is against this chant? shit is just crazy, you know what I mean? It's like this juxtaposition of eras, of like centuries. Yeah, but you see when you isolate the dun, done, done, like you say, some goofy shit, it automatically sounds like Napoleon Dynamite. When you play it without Anya's vocal on top of it. Yeah, straight up, dude. It is never going to talk to me now.

Anya's vocal. No, Eni's dope. The Gregorian chant connection is so interesting because I totally hear it when you say that. Is it because her vocal has all the reverb? Because it's drenched, it's like really long reverb. Yeah, so if we're talking effects on the effects, the vocal chant sounds like it's very Taj Mahal, right? So when you go into your effects, you have like hall, medium, small. Like a giant space.

Of course, the space. So within a vocal like that, you throw that Taj Mahal behind them. It's going to go crazy. Well, or Gregorian chant, to your point. Like, it feels like an old, like Notre Dame in Paris, like some giant space. Yeah, because the theory of it is like, because when you talk about air and space, that's why with, with, with, you could be like, okay, give me a small room verb, right? You condense it.

But the idea of like Gagorian chant, it's war. It's, it's, it's heroic, right? So the idea of a Taj Mahal makes it endless. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, big game of throne type shit in the back thrown. Yeah. And there is war. You're right.

There's like some fear and some. a battle cry, like a churchy battle cry from the year 1300 something. Yes, sir. So we read the song was released without Inya's sample being cleared, and you had to get on the phone with her after the fact to have her approve this sample. What's the story there? Yeah, I mean, again, like coming from where we came from, delivering this album, right? You were moving fast.

We're moving fast, but at the same time, we don't know the complexity of the over the overall business. It don't, like, you know what I'm saying? And ain't nobody at Sony at Roughhouse thinking, why Clefjohn from Haiti, grew up in Brooklyn, Marlboro Project,

then moved to New Oregon and these darns. Somehow found this woman from Ireland. Sample like the shit. Wait, the label didn't know that it was a sample. No, it was, everything fly back. I just, I just think everything was moving so fast

Fujila was already killing it. You know what I'm saying to? You know, so at the time, my manager, Davis-Sanaberg, you know what I'm saying? Got on, and I had to get on. And of course, Sony had to remove all of the albums from the shelf or a deal had to be made immediately, you feel me? So the deal was made,

and I think that what secured this because the India team are very religious. Like, be clear. Like, they're very religious people. Okay. They have preacher kids on another. continent. That's right. And then so I think that, you know, my explanation for all of this was like, you know, this is like if you look at the way like John would subscribe this from the book of

Revelation, you know, this is like I call to our people. Like saying, you on the phone with Anya. Yeah, this is like me explaining everything. Like ready or not. And then I'm already John W. Cliff, right? So, and then now when you pay attention to it, it's just another preacher kid who is explaining into his generation or her generation, how they see the streets and what's going on, what to be fearful of, what can happen, what to do,

what to not do, you know what I'm saying, how we could go down, you know what I mean? So she got that to her credit. Yeah, but we still had to pay them. She was like, that's beautiful,

you're still got to see some money. You're such a preacher. Now put something in the collection, play, I mean, the interesting thing, too, is you also are underrated in bringing

Enya to hip hop culture because you weren't the last one by any means to sample, not just Enya, but this song, which Boadagia, however you want to pronounce, it finds its way into Wynens. It finds its way into the weekend. Doug, you don't want me to start to sound like Little Richard. I am the original of a lot of shit. Country music. Anya, I bring next thing, you know. Acoustic guitar.

Man, let's go. But yeah. And by the way, they're sampling this part of the song. They're sampling it essentially the way. you sampled. Which is a nod to you. Which is a nod to you. What I'd love about it is, again, is you know, when you hit a whole record,

right, any producing those, that's the best part of the song. Like the most catchy because it starts going to a whole other wave. I was like, I don't think this way is going to work. You found the loop. You found the good part. I found the get down. Well, let's get to the vocals because

they are classic. And why don't we start with the course? Ready or not? Here I come You can hide I'm going to find you And take it slowly Sorry for stopping it there We're just going to go piece by piece

There's so much to talk about Tell us about the first time you heard that hook Or how it came to be in the song Well, big shout out to Miss Hill And again now this is where we talk about The The Ruko Pollo, you know what I mean That gumbo, the mashup

Yeah And that's a matchup, right? That's a matchup Yeah, that's a match up. Yeah. Because now I do this beat, right? And now Lauren's going to come with this thing. And keep in mind, I hear the Delphonics, right? You don't know the band.

You don't know the song. No, I don't know, right? Keep in mind, I don't know, right? This is where now the same thing I was doing with the crisis. Like when she come as a, you know, her scientist's brain now, And that's the first thing she's saying. Wow. So what we've been going through?

The slowing the story down. There wasn't a hundred. She heard the beat with the Anya sample. That's all there was. Yeah. There were no other. And I was in a little room in a book of basement upstairs. I like stayed in a little.

The studios downstairs. This is your and Jerry Wonders. Yeah. Jerry's dad. Yeah. Jerry Daddy. My uncle. Okay.

So that's the basement. And then my room is like right upstairs. And that's why I was cooking up the beat in the room. You see what I'm saying? You. Just you and your MPC. Yeah, me and my MPC. Wake up with it, sleep with it at that time.

And she walks in and she's like, and the first thing she starts to sing is ready or not. Like, there was no, like, I'm going to sing two or three. And I was just like, yo, this is hard. Like, you know what I mean? So for me and my brain, I just know, like, Lauren just created this crazy hook. You know what I'm saying to you?

You didn't know she was bringing it from her memory, from her memory of the song. Again, it's that genius Fuji's fusion thing is happening. Let's listen to the original just for people to know what we're referencing. This is the Delphonic's, Ready or Not, Here I Come, parentheses, can't hide from love. 1968. It should be pointed out. Part of her genius is not only is she interpolating or interpolationing the line. She's reharmonizing it because it's not the chord changes.

No, and then so keep in mind. They're different. Yeah, so they always say, like, the best thing about art is, like, when you look at something, you're not really copying it, but you're inspired by it, and you're about to flip it completely different. So I would say the genius of how Lauren hears things, like, you know, like, we've known each other like forever. You know what I'm saying to you? Is so she's been like, she's been like storm. See these things like, doop, you know what I mean?

So she heard it, and now when she sings it, she's going to decode it. And it's going to talk to her generation, like how she wants to portray it. And so she was raised with all of this music. So she just has a way of like when she flips it, it's just going to be crazy. Did she bring the Tina Marie Ulala to Fujila? Same thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, you know, again, that, that hook-driven. ideology of something that live in the back. Because we all like, what we, we don't even understand, right? The key is our subconscious. So the human, because you don't even know why you like it. Because you'll hear something and your body starts, you know, and I can watch it with my daughter's generation. Like sometimes a person ain't have to say nothing.

There's something that happens and they're like, and then I could decode it in the back and I could hear. So she was great. at having you reminisce off of something that you don't even need to know what it is, but it's in your back. If you grow up in America, you know,

it's somewhere in your mama crate, there's a cord memory. There's a cord memory there. And there's something, the special brain, it takes a special kind of brain. First of all, for that to evoke that,

but to sing in real time, what is a completely different set of chords, to find the melody and to find kind of, and she flips it a little bit, rhythmically slightly. Straight genius. But it's straight genius to be able to do that. Because if I played the same chords as the Delphonic song, that's one thing.

But different chords and you're not messed up by it, that's crazy. I'd love to hear verse one of the song, classic verse. Now that I escaped, sleep, walk away. Those who covalete know the world ain't cake. Jell bars ain't Golden Gates. Those who fake they break. There's so many lyrics there that I would love to ask you about. But I always thought it was Joe bars and Golden Gates,

which is a totally different meaning than jail bars ain't golden gates, which is correct. Jail bars ain't golden gates, man. You know jail bars. You know they ain't golden gates, though. I said the jail bars ain't golden gates. Oh, they really aren't. Yeah. They really aren't.

But what does that lyric mean to you? I mean, jail bars ain't golden gates. Basically, you know, we can't. I try to tell a youth, you don't want to glorify the prison system because, you know what I'm saying? It's like a badge of honor to go to jail. But I'm letting them know that all the OGs that I know that go to jail, they're like, yo, it's not Golden Gates. Y'all want to come this way, you know what I mean?

You don't want to end up with a 400-pound mate? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I got a good question on the chronology of the If I Ruled the World in there, because that's a... The Nause reference. If I ruled the world, Nause featuring Lauren Hill,

that single comes out in June 96. But you've written this song the year before, right? So what's the chronology of that line being in here? Which came first? If I World the World, the Curtis Blow. Yeah, yeah, Curtis Blow, yeah, of course. And Curtis Blow was my first producer. Let's hear a little bit of Curtis Blow if I ruled the world.

So was that your idea to bring it into, first of all, a song? And if so, was it this song first and then the Nas song or the other way? No, the Nas joint. Like, I just love the If I Rule the World. But my vibe was more in the Curtis. And my vibe was Curtis Blow, if that makes sense. Yeah. So because I rule the world with the Naz and Lauren was, I think it's after.

We talk about that subconscious thing that's in the back of your head. I'm automatically like vibing. But again, that's a Lauren ad lib. Oh, that's her ad lib. Got it. Right? You feel me? So we would.

Was that a coincidence that she's adleaving that with your connection to Curtis Blow? No, let me tell you, we just, you know, in studios, do we want to do this? Like, we could start pulling up shit like, motherfucker's safe shit. And three months later, it happens. That's the wonderful thing. Is that something that you just toss in there, throw away ad lib, can literally spark a million hits afterwards? Of course, like one little teeny idea. That's why I say everyone counts.

Verse two, another classic verse, this one by Lauren. Can you place that verse? I could do what you do. Easy. Believe me. Front and dick is give me he be jee. So why you imitate and Al Capone? I be needing a Simone and defecating on your microphone.

Don't do that. Kids at home. Have questions about this. I always wondered what rap orgy's with Porgy and Bess meant. You're going to have to ask Lauren that. Okay, I'll have to ask Lauren that. I also think it came in a time when, like, this is 96. Like, Bad Boy is everywhere.

I think the Junior Mafia album had come out around this time. Like the amount of people who refer to themselves as Al Capone, Gambino. Yeah. You know, that was like, that was all the rage. Yeah, she said, I'm a shit on all y'all. She's going to shit on this microphone. Literally. While y'all claim an Al Capone.

So February marks the 30th anniversary of the score. My friend, what do you think the legacy of Ready or Not is and the album at large? Just timeless music. Right. So everybody that's listening, I say, like, don't do music. music because you're like, there's a bunch of shit out here, and I just want to copy some shit and just go fast. But if you take your time and you make timeless music,

it don't matter what the year is or what that's, if you got to do music and be like, oh, this shit got to come out right now, then something's wrong, right? You got to do music like, well, you're like, you know, I ain't saying hold on to the music. That's not what I'm saying. But I think the legacy of the score is just like timeless music. So another part of the Fuji's legacy is how it opened the door for everything that came afterwards.

For you, as a solo artist and as a songwriter and as a producer for other people, even before we learned the sad news that we just learned, I had always intended to bring up this song. It's one of my absolute favorite songs of all time that you had a hand in. And that song is 99, Flash the Message by the Good Brother John Forte. Let's hear a little bit of 99. I'm Phil. You just have from the Twizzio

and Stizil. My flow is here. Leave you physial or leave your law stuck like Jack without the jizzier. Come on. Me and my kid. I love how you like start it over.

I like songs where like the person goes, did you say, oh, no, I'm Phil Jackson. I'm with my crew. I'm straight up. You know, like I got the best players. You know what I mean? I'm like, no, no, run that playback.

And as many of us know, that song uses an interpolation of this song, this is 99 Luftblitz. An amazing interpolation at the time. Can I say for a whole generation of hip-hop lovers, this song almost feels like the end of a certain era in 90s hip-hop because I feel like it came out in 98. That's the last year of something.

It's before, you know, I feel like the Neptunes and Kanye, I think Super Thug by Noriega came out in 98. Have you ever thought about the shifts and the changes in that way? Because I do feel like 98-99 is a, it's a, time of great change in the culture. Yeah. No, I just think that, you know, everything has a season. You know what I'm saying? But a genius of the season and a genius that define time are two different things. I think that, you know, 100 years from now, a kid's going to find that 99

balloons record and play it. You know what I mean? Same way they're going to find the score. So I think, again, and then they're going to do their own version the same way we did our own version. So I think, again, like with the Neptunes and what Ye did and everybody continued, again, I think everyone just paints, you know, amazing art. I just think, you know, we just, you know, we painted a Baskill piece, so it's hard, it's hard to move us. You know, just Blaze, that's going to become the sound more of like the 2000s, but like this is like a perfect time for me personally in music. I mean, like you had Ruggist records. You have the Carnival, which is your album. It's one of my favorite

albums all the time. I have so many memories of songs like anything. Bubble goose. Gone till November. You talk about your three sonics theory. When you played it in concert last night, I was like, where are my violins? I need my strings. But it's such a beautiful song. These are beautiful albums.

All right, so this year marks another big milestone. It's 20 years since your global smash with Shakira. Hips Don't Lie, which not everybody realizes is a remake, right? It's technically almost a remix. This is Dance Like This by White Clefton. I love how there's like elements in there that are identifiable in the final, like, global, billion, of stream smash version. But it's what's different is, I mean, I hear the beat is different and obviously the vocal

is different. But is it the same music bed otherwise? What did you change to remix the song to make it into hips, don't lie? The 2005 Shakira featuring Wycliffe smash hit. Well, I think, again, I think it's the collaboration of genius, right? Shakira is a genius in her own right, right? So when we went into the studio, like, you have to think it's the best combination. and Shakira ain't just going to come and sing the song.

Like, that's not what she'd do. She's like me. Like, she's like, okay, we're going to bring the kumbas. You know, this in my country, Colombia. You know, I can hear the socks. But about, you know? So I think that. I would have loved to have been there.

I'm sure you would. But what made it amazing, again, was look at it like two composers. One from the Americas, right? like, you know, Shakira, Columbia, and Lebanese. What happens when they get in the studio? One kid from a hip-hop culture, right, another kid. So automatically, like, I'm like, yo, how do I, you know, Lord Tarreek and Peter Gunn, Shakira out? Yes.

You're already. You're still, I was going to say, to compliment you, you're still taking that underground. I'm from that. You're thinking that hip-hop, underground, Spanish Harlem, Lord, Tarik, Peter Guns, and your place again. That energy. Right next to like international, you know, Latina superstar. Yeah. Because, you know, I'm from hip hop.

And I think, like, hip hop is the best form of music. And what I mean by that, it's the only form of music that's all forms of music. It really is. But I think, to your credit, your genius is that you'll take something like that one element out of the Lord Tarique and Peter Gunn's song. I think it was that song by Jerry Rivera. Because that is sampled. from an old Latin song. Right.

Right. There's a connection to the Latin. I would not have even been thought of no shit like that if I was in a hip hop kid, right? So at the end of the day, as a producer mine,

the, I'm going to go sample, oh, where's the original, right? I'm going to look for the original. Also, right, so being like Haitian, Dominican, Cuban, Jamaican, like that whole area, like we do Rocco Poyo. So as much as they played English music,

like in the house, more gospel stuff. But when I went to my uncle, it was everything coming out of Columbia, out of Cuba. So this is not, so hearing those horns and then seeing a hip-hop producer do it,

again, it's just, for me, I always reference hip-hop. Because I'm like, people will be like, yo, well, describe, say, yo, it's literally like the new jazz fusion.

It's the only thing. Like, you could pull, I could pull a country piece. There's no other kind of music, dudes, you could pull anything from. There's so many layers and so much lineage in what you do and how you do it. It's not just, it's not just, it is the international part,

but it's not just that, it's also the historical layers. You're kind of tracing it back in time, you're making connections. You seem to be suggesting that some of them are conscious, but some of them just came out of like, you didn't realize that it was in your subconscious like we were saying before. And it just sort of appeared in this moment

because it was the right thing. If you're inspired and you craft the best music, it's gonna find its way. And I always tell all of the young producers and different people, coming out there. When I was young, I used to want to be so validated.

Like when you were young, you'd be like, yo, I want to win Grammys. I want to be boom, boom, boom. I want, then you start travel

the fucking world, right? And you go into like, the depth of like the earth, right? And next thing you know, like, free and walking with the Eskimos,

you know what I'm saying? And your dogs and shit. And then, you know, and you hear, one love, one heart. And you're like,

fucking Barb Marley don't have no Grammys, no nothing. He's the biggest artist in the world. So again, I say just do, like, just do your best one song. You know what I mean? Create your one song and it's going to happen. Wycliffe John, such a huge honor to have you on our show, one song. And what is going on in your world that you want the listeners to know about? You have some projects coming out.

Tell the world what's happening next. All right. So I need the whole world to pay close attention. This is me, the human. Man versus Machine, starting in March, March, April, May, June, July, August. I'll be dropping seven albums. Each album reflects me bending the last 30 years in the genre. So I ain't going to tell y'all, yo, man, I was the first one to do country music and hip-hop.

No, with the country album, you could trace back to me and Kenny Rogers. The jazz album is dedicated to Q. The hip-hop is going to be called Black Moses, grown and sexy. You already know what that's going to be. The R&B album, going to be crazy. The reggae album is nuts. So everybody was like, clef is out of his mind. How is he going to get all this?

So every album is like a different genre, a different genre? Yeah, every genre, it reflects me bending the past. So we have a full compa album. And y'all ain't going to be able to sit down on that one. It's going to be called like the compa invasion, inspired by the British invasion. So look out for that. So we're very excited about that.

We'll be hitting the tour. And also, me and Ms. Hill will definitely be doing a couple of Fuji dates. You know what I'm saying? Like a couple of white cleft-law dates. And also, we've been talking about some form of a remastering of the score and some of the materials that were unreleased, you know, files from through the years. How can we give the fans some of that back? There's some B-sides and some supercuts.

Yeah, some very cool. Like, because remember we kept going back in the studio. Absolutely. And just trying to. Yeah, yeah. Like me, Jerry L. we kept trying to, which is very cool. So look forward to all of that.

We are looking forward to it indeed. All right. And then the next show you come to, the Fugis, I mean the Wyclef show, I'll make sure the strings are there for gone to no longer. I will be there at every show now. Take my money. Thank you so much for coming on the show, sir. Thank you so much.

As always, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram. Diallo and on TikTok at Diallo and you can find me on Instagram at L-U-X-X-U-R-Y and on TikTok at LuxuryXX. And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok at At-One-Song podcast

for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube. Just search for a One Song podcast. We'd love it if you like and subscribe. Also, be sure to check out the One-Song Spotify playlist for all the songs we discuss on our episodes and find the link in our episode description. And if you made it this far,

you're officially part of the One-Song Welcome. Give us five stars, leave a review, and send this episode to a fellow music fan. It really helps keep the show thriving. Luxury, help me in this thing. I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, musicologist, and every Friday night from 10 p.m. to midnight, KCRW, DJ, luxury. And I'm actor, writer-director, and sometimes DJ, Diallo Riddle. And this is one song. We'll see you next time. This episode is produced by Melissa Duenas.

Our video editor is Casey Simonson, mixing by Michael Hardman, and engineering by Eric Hakes. This show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Wael, and Leslie Guam.